6 Things That Happen to the Body Without Enough Water

The Institute of Medicine suggests women drink about nine cups of water a day, which may leave you wondering whether that's actually worth all the trips to the bathroom. We went straight to the studies to debunk the hydration hype.

2. No water, NO metabolism revving. In independent studies for his 2010 book The Water Secret (Wiley), doctor Howard Murad found that a person's basal metabolic rate (the calories burned while at rest) speeds as the body becomes more positively hydrated and efficient.

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3. You'll have to think harder to complete the same tasks. At the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London in 2011, scientists found that the brain's of dehydrated teenagers had shrunk away from their skulls, and that when asked to play a problem solving game, they performed just as well as those who drank enough, but engaged more of their brains to do so. (Drinking water restores the brain to its normal size.)